Wareham Development In the News

Friday, October 19, 2007
Bio-fuel institute taps Emeryville for space
San Francisco Business Times - by Ron Leuty

EmeryStation East is fast becoming the center of clean energy.

The Emeryville building snagged the Joint BioEnergy Institute, a cellulosic biofuel research venture backed by the U.S. Department of Energy, for about 65,000 square feet. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

That comes less than two months after Wareham Development inked a deal with Amyris Biotechnologies Inc. for 70,000 square feet.

The institute and Amyris have three things in common: cellulosic biofuels, Jay Keasling and a whole lot of money.

Keasling, a chemical engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, oversees the institute, which only a couple weeks ago received the first installment on a $125 million, five-year funding pledged from the DOE. He also is a founder of Amyris, which last month closed the first tranche of a potential $70 million in Series B funding.

JBEI is trying to find a way to turn cellulose in plants like miscanthus, switchgrass, sugar cane or poplar trees into fuels. That includes studying key genes in the plants and finding novel enzymes that can efficiently break down the cellulose.

Amyris also is trying to develop microorganisms that can create biofuels. Its early success used the same technology to create a synthetic antimalarial drug.

JBEI and Amyris found space in EmeryStation East independently of each other, Keasling said.

JBEI leaders wanted a home close to the Berkeley campus and looked at the Potter Street building that houses Keasling's lab, he said. But "it really wasn't an option for us," Keasling said.

EmeryStation East, on the other hand, is a new building, "and we can outfit it the way we want to," Keasling said. "This really gave us a lot of options."

JBEI plans to grow from about 20 people to more than 100 by the time it moves into EmeryStation East in March or April, Keasling said. It will have about 180 employees a year from now, he said.

The institute is a partnership between the DOE, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Stanford University and Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories.

Nearly 70 percent of space in 245,000-square-foot, spec-built building is committed, including a lease with Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Inc. for 36,000 square feet.

Biotech lease rates in East Bay North, which includes Emeryville, are about $30 per square foot, triple net, according to a summer survey by biotech trade group BayBio.

rleuty@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4939

About Wareham Development

Wareham Development is committed to the long-term economic and environmental vitality of the communities where we do business. During the planning process, we work closely with city and state agencies to ensure that each project provides maximum benefit to its surrounding community. And, unlike many developers who build projects only to sell them, we retain ownership of the majority of our developments, many of which have come to define the thriving technology corridor between the Bay and Richmond-San Rafael bridges.

The Wareham vision encompasses the spark and promise of small companies on the verge of growth, and large corporations whose fortunes span the globe. We are proud of our associations with all of our tenants, and feel deeply privileged to play a role in their success.